A shared studio in the East Village bringing together independent practices across architecture, interiors, landscape, lighting, visualization, preservation, and related design disciplines.
BUILDING A PRACTICE OF YOUR OWN IS HARD. DON’T DO IT ALONE.
Built for independent architecture and design practices. Each practice remains its own, while space, resources, knowledge, and the everyday experience of studio life are shared.
A SHARED STUDIO
Independent practice comes with a particular kind of freedom, but it also means building a lot around the work itself. You need a place to work, meet with clients, spread out drawings and materials, and sometimes another person to ask, learn from, or work with. It also helps to be around others who are building their own practices and facing many of the same challenges. The Collective brings this together in a shared studio, while allowing each practice to remain entirely its own.
GENEROSITY OF SPACE
The studio is intentionally generous. Rather than maximizing the number of people in the room, we chose fewer, larger work areas and left space open between them. There is room to spread out drawings, work with materials and models, meet around a table, step away from the desk, or simply have some space around you. This generosity is practical, but it also shapes how the studio feels and how people work within it.
STUDIO CULTURE
A studio has its own kind of energy. Drawings are being developed. Materials are tested. Problems are worked through. Ideas are discussed, questioned, changed and tried again. There is concentration, but also movement. Serious work alongside curiosity, experimentation and the pleasure of making something. The Collective is built around this kind of studio culture — a place where different practices can think, make and develop their work alongside one another.
GROWING A PRACTICE
Finding new work — and having the capacity to take it on — are two of the harder parts of building an independent practice. Working alongside other practices can help with both. A competition might need an extra pair of hands. A proposal could benefit from another perspective. A project might call for expertise you don’t have in-house. And a conversation, introduction or referral might lead to work you would not have encountered otherwise. The idea is not to build a team around every practice, but to create a larger professional circle each practice can draw from as it grows.
THE COMPOSITION
Who is in the room matters. The Collective brings together independent practices across architecture, interiors, landscape, lighting, visualization, preservation, and other fields connected to the built environment. The composition is intentional, but never fixed. As new practices join, we consider what knowledge, perspective, or discipline they might bring to the studio — and what they might find within it. Each practice keeps its own identity, clients, and way of working. We’re not filling desks. We’re composing the room.
EXCHANGE
Different practices bring different ways of seeing a project. A conversation across disciplines can question an assumption, introduce another way of working, or change the direction of an idea. This exchange takes many forms — from the informal conversations that happen around the studio to small lectures, roundtables, reviews and discussions that bring different practices and perspectives into the room. We are interested in how ideas move between disciplines, and how collaboration can shape creative work — within the studio, in contemporary practice, and through examples from the past
YOUR PRACTICE DESERVES A STUDIO
There is no single point at which a practice becomes a practice. Some people are already working independently. Others are building something of their own alongside other work. Some are growing from one person into a small studio. The Collective is for practices at different stages — with one thing in common: the desire to give their work a place of its own.
THE STUDIO
East Village, New York
Generous individual work areas · Shared meeting and review spaces · Material library and pin-up space · Shared studio resources · Month-to-month
Studio workspaces begin at $850 / month.
COME BY
The Collective grows gradually as new practices become part of the studio. If you are building a practice of your own, come spend some time here and see how the space feels.
Your practice deserves a studio.
WHY WE CREATED THE COLLECTIVE
The Collective grew out of our own working lives. We were looking for the same thing from different directions: a serious, beautifully designed studio environment that allowed for independence, while still offering the energy, exchange, and everyday presence of other architects and designers.
We couldn’t quite find it.
So we made it.
— Dana Lieber & Matan Gal
Lieber Gal
